REPORT OP COMMITTEE ON PUBLICATION 297 



PRE-COOLING. 



The term "Pre-cooling" has been applied to a system of preparing fruits 

 for shipment in which the initial temperature is reduced promptly and 

 rapidly in advance of shipment. Probably no innovation in the handling of a 

 food product has received wider discussion than has the use of pre-cooling 

 since the work of the United States Department of Agriculture first brought 

 it prominently to the attention of fruit growers about eleven years ago. The 

 first application of pre-cooling to fruits was made by Parker Earle, the 

 pioneer shipper of fruits under refrigeration in 1866, in cooling strawberries 

 before loading them for shipment from southern Illinois to Chicago. This 

 first work was done by placing the packages of berries in an iced chamber 

 until they were thoroughly chilled. Mr. Earle reports that his first efforts 

 along this line were very satisfactory, but on account of the lack of refrige- 

 rator car equipment, the extension of the process was not very rapid. The 

 next step in the application of pre-cooling to fruit shipments was begun by 

 Powell, then in charge of the United States Department Fruit Transporta- 

 tion and Storage Investigations, in the experimental pre-cooling of peaches 

 shipped from Georgia. This work was begun in 1904. The results were very 

 encouraging and showed that with proper cooling and equipment peaches 

 from Georgia could be transported to New York with minimum decay and 

 deterioration. The investigations of the Department of Agriculture were 

 later extended to oranges and other fruits in California, and the work is still 

 in progress with other fruits. The process of pre-cooling has received rather 

 wide commercial application, especially in California, where both the South- 

 ern Pacific and the Santa Fe Railway Systems have constructed large plants 

 for the pre-cooling of fruit after loading on the cars. In addition, a number 

 of plants designed to pre-cool the fruit before loading have been erected by 

 associations of fruit growers, chiefly in southern California for the pre- 

 cooling of oranges. 



Systems of Pre-cooling. 



There are two systems of pre-cooling: (1) Car Pre-cooling, and (2) 

 Warehouse Pre-cooling. 



In the car pre-cooling system, the cooling is accomplished by forcing 

 large volumes of very cold air through the loaded cars. 



The warehouse system derives its name from the fact that the cooling 

 is done in warehouse rooms, with special refrigerating capacity, before the 

 fruit is loaded. 



It will not be possible to give a detailed discussion of the relative merits 

 of the two systems. It will be easily seen that the car pre-cooling system 

 is the function of the transportation lines, as it necessarily involves the 

 handling, switching, and movement of cars and trains. It also requires 

 machinery of very large capacity in order to do the work as rapidly as 

 possible. 



The warehouse system is the only one which can be operated advantage- 

 ously by the grower or packer or associations of growers or packers. Its 

 only disadvantage lies in the fact that the fruit must be given an extra 



